No one puts their feet on the floor each morning with the intention to cause harm to others... write Vic & Liz O’Callaghan. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes they go wrong regularly. This can happen anywhere, but it can often happen at home, and it is hard to talk about it. What can we do?

Emotional Intelligence is widely recognised as important for human flourishing. It includes: the ability to identify and appropriately express one’s emotions, the ability to manage and self-regulate negative emotions, and the ability to empathise with others’ emotional state. While people will be gifted to different degrees with Emotional Intelligence (EQ), like all intelligences, we can

Developed by Gary Chapman, the Five Love Languages, is a simple framework that can teach us how to love more effectively. The theory is simple and powerful. Love is like a language. People ‘speak’ love in different ways, some through words of affirmation, others through thoughtful gifts, acts of service, quality time or touch.

Things go wrong. Disasters happen. We fail. We mess up. No matter our age or talent, we all face adversity from time to time. Learning to respond with optimism and self-mastery can be the difference between a productive, joy-filled life and one mired with hopelessness. A persistent pessimistic mind-set is also a risk factor

May is the month of Mary and also celebrates Mother's Day. In this edition we give tribute to mothers - both heavenly and earth-bound ones. I remember the time my class teacher, Mrs Gardner, had each of us write down what we wanted to be when we grew up. She pinned our responses up on

Without a doubt, Holy Week is the busiest week in the Church calendar! With so many important events, it is difficult for parishes to provide family-friendly services, especially when the themes are so sophisticated. Yet Holy Week is a wonderful time to help children enter more deeply into the mysteries of our faith through home based rituals. Here’s a few

In marriage the fasting and feasting cycle is evident in the use of natural fertility methods which are the methods of family planning approved by the Catholic Church*. A couple’s marriage is nourished and strengthened when they make love. It is also strengthened by times of abstinence; these times may result from various factors including

of Death and Life It is often said that there can be no resurrection without death. New life is almost always preceded by death in an perpetual cycle of regeneration. This cycle of death and rebirth is evident everywhere in the created order around us. We see how the death and ‘burial’ of the seed is what allows it

Despite GFC’s, most of us still live pretty comfortable lives… How much does God feature in yours? Are you ‘Catholic lite’ or ‘Catholic to the Max’? A Story: It was our habit to complain about the singing and the liturgy as we drove home from Mass – we loved the Mass and were frustrated by

Plan your family fun these holidays... Creating Memories Think back to a favourite Christmas holiday memory. Was it one of those simple, spontaneous moments, or was there some planning involved? Usually there is at least some forethought whether to plan a trip away, or simply spend a day at the beach, and for every child’s